PEOPLE living and working around Anfield today cautiously welcomed plans for a new Liverpool FC super-stadium.

The club yesterday submitted plans for a 60,000-seat arena costing #80m (above) and a host of proposals and ideas for regenerating the area around Anfield and Stanley Park.

The plans were largely well received as the ECHO went into the community to test public reaction.

Most people were happy to see the development of a new stadium, but said the club and the city council had to deliver on the regeneration package tied with it.

Colin Malone, 51, has run a printing shop on Walton Breck Road, in the shadow of Anfield, for the past 10 years.

He said Anfield and Breckfield needed regeneration but felt the club had not done enough to inform people of its plans.

He added: "Businesses round here do well out of the football. We get a bit of work through the club, printing posters and leaflets for their development office. Obviously, we hope they still use us after they move.

"But we have been kept in the dark, really. There have been lots of rumours and only a few pamphlets through the door which didn't say very much.

"The changes to the park are needed. I now live near Calder-stones Park and can't understand how Stanley Park has been allowed to get like this."

At the Albert pub nearby, barman Rod Culshaw, 50, said the ground move would not affect trade at the bar.

He said: "Moving will not make a spot of difference.

"We have got scarves up from Hillsborough here. People drink here because it is almost a museum. There is even a barman we call the curator."

She said investment is needed to provide facilities for children in Anfield.

She added: "The whole area needs money and if the new stadium in Stanley Park brings investment in then it's badly needed."

Coffee shop regular John Hawkins, 45, said: "I live overlooking Stanley Park and my main worry is that it will ruin the view from my house.

"I'm beginning to wonder if I should sell so I would like to know more about how it will look when it's finished and how long they are going to take with the builders.

"I think the new underground car park would be fantastic; parking is terrible at the moment."

Irene and Tony Jones take their grandson James once a week to the playground by the Gladstone conservatory in Stanley Park.

Mrs Jones, 58, from nearby Pinehurst Road says vandalism has made the park unsightly but believes it is a shame it can only be renovated if LFC move in.

She said: "Why can't it happen any way? I don't agree with the club building on the park.

"There are not many green areas around Anfield. There must be other places for Liverpool to go. On match days the roads are chaos. It's just too built up around here. We have to make sure we have parked our car before a match or we will never find a space."

Soccer fans Sian Campbell and Russell Lee have split allegiances but are unanimous in their views on the future of the two teams.

Ms Campbell, 23, said: "I'm Red and he's Blue but we both agree that that we shouldn't have a shared ground. I think Liverpool's plan should go ahead because the area definitely needs the money and the kids need something to do."

Mr Russell, 33, added: "It would be good to see the Gladstone conservatory done up."